


Without Reward

by peggyseditorial



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 22:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peggyseditorial/pseuds/peggyseditorial
Summary: The Doctor reflects on The Master/Missy





	Without Reward

It was night, and The Doctor couldn't sleep. Restlessness consumed him as he reflected for the first time in ages. He was alone again--something his human companions said he should never be, yet here he was. Alone.

Each time he closed his eyes was the image of a young Missy--when Missy was still a boy. The adventurous smile and glittering blue eyes before he took off running across the red fields of Gallifrey between the two mountains near the path to the Citadel of the Time Lords. The silver leaves of the trees moving with the wind as they passed, looking like live fire. Innocent laughter filling his mind... And then, too soon, the sweet memory faded to the academy. Missy, the one who wanted to be The Master of all Time and Space, unafraid of anything was suddenly frightened by the shadows of nothing after staring into the Untempered Schism.

Each night, Missy awoke in tears and screams, driven insane by imaginary drums. As they aged, they grew closer.

The Doctor tried so hard to be reasonable for his friend--he worked so hard to keep him out of trouble, but by the time they were adults the Master was entirely insane and no doctor on Gallifrey could help.

The Doctor was plagued by the memories now. Missy as an adult, sometimes fine or more than fine. Manic with ideas for his future, Missy gave The Doctor hope that there was if only shortly, some peace for his friend. But then there were the bad times. Late-night bangings on the door, waking his wife and children with the knocks as Missy was finally let in, eyes in tears, begging for relief from the drums.

_"You're the Doctor, help me? Why won't you help me?!"_ His friend would beg, collapsing in exhaustion and huddling in a fetal position while the Doctor tried to console him.

The Doctor was a kind friend, some thought. Now, though... now that he knew the drumming was real, the Doctor felt otherwise.

Even with the drumming gone, with The Master's latest incarnation, it became clear that the madness was never going to leave. The Doctor reasoned with himself that he couldn't have cured it when they were growing up because he didn't know. Besides, it was already a fixed point... but it didn't help the Doctor's heart. The knowledge that centuries of mental torture made sure the Master could have never lived the healthy life of a Time Lord.

The current Doctor could now comprehend that after his time spent in the confessional dial. 4 and 1/2 billion years of Gallifrein torture gave him a taste, though the Doctor knew the time felt like much less since he kept restarting.

Still, the loneliness had broken something in him. Something that would take time to rebuild.

He could, though, rebuild that is. He was already starting too. Rather, _she_ was beginning to as she started on a new incarnation, new adventures, and new life. But her friend, Missy.

The Doctor looked at the confession dial before her. It was Missy's dial. Its delivery delayed by the fact that Missy was perhaps Gallifrey's most hated figure, a position the Doctor thought she would have instead but didn't.

When the dial came, the Doctor asked why it was so late after seeing the date on it. The day she lost so much. The day she thought Missy had once again betrayed her. Only now she realized that Missy didn't abandon her that day. No. It was worse because she was dead all over again.

She was too grief-stricken to hear the Citadel's pitiful response about the delay.

She was alone, again.

And now, it was time to open the dial and hear Missy's last confession.

She traced the dial's engravements with her fingertips, a tear slipping down her face as she remembered.

The Doctor opened the dial and a hologram popped up. Missy's blue eyes pierced through the gold-tinted hologram.

There were no words for a moment.

Just a smile.

A real smile like when they were children, with those blue, glittering, and hopeful eyes.

\---

_"To my dear friend, the Doctor..."_

\- The End -


End file.
